[The following Op-Ed was written by Daniel Spigel]
Mayor Bloomberg is a phony. Allow me to explain why.
We all know that Mayor Bloomberg is obsessed with gun control. He is so obsessed that he recently went as far as sending two NYPD detectives 2,400 miles away to Arizona to purchase a gun illegally, and then make a media circus out of it. In fact, while he refuses to fill our potholes because he claims we don’t have the money, he spent over $100,000 on this “sting” operation that had one purpose – to get the Mayor press.
Mr. Mayor, who cares about Arizona when you’re not taking care of New York? According to the most recent FBI statistics, violent crime in New York City increased significantly in 2010 compared to data from 2009. Robbery went up 3.9 percent, aggravated assault increased 8.8 percent and murder rose 12.3 percent. Crime is spiraling out of control in NYC, but our Mayor felt that it was the correct decision to send NYPD Detectives to Arizona to buy guns!
What really send me over the edge, however, was this past Friday’s New York City bloodbath. No other words can describe the murderous actions of Maksim Gelman, as he went on a 28-hour killing spree – stabbing 8 people, murdering 3 of them, carjacking multiple vehicles at knife-point, and striking and killing a fourth man with a stolen vehicle. In total, eight people were stabbed. And guess what? Not one word from the honorable Mayor Bloomberg. Not a peep.
Mr. Mayor, your silence is deafening. Rest assured, if this murderous thug had committed the same crime using a gun, Bloomberg would have been on every national news network rambling about gun control. Every newspaper cover would have had Bloomberg pointing an angry finger and yelling bloody-murder about illegal guns. While the Mayor trolls the country for his gun agenda, knives apparently are not a concern.
This leaves me to conclude that Mayor Bloomberg is an insensitive, power-hungry autocrat who is only concerned with making headlines – not THIS CITY’S public safety.
Yes, Mayor Bloomberg is a phony.
Daniel Spigel is the founder of the Republican Association For Better Values, and has been a contributor to many news outlets.
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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12 Responses
One of Bloomberg’s lines is “If you have a gun, you don’t trust the police”. Of the many answers one could reply with, my favorite is “what does that say about people who have fire extinguishers?” Police cannot be there the second a crime happens, and the supreme court has affirmed that they have no responsibility to prevent crime. YOU are responsible for YOURSELF and responsible gun ownership is part and parcel of that. Bloomberg, despite his PR efforts, lives in an very very ivory tower, protected by men with guns as well.
Yes, I AM actually waiting for Mr. Bloomberg, or some other individual or group of mis-guided leftists to start requiring a permit to purchase a kitchen knife!
This murder spree was not only NOT committed with a firearm, it wasn’t even committed with a “tactical” or hunting knife!
It was committed with a KITCHEN knife!
You’ve surely heard it before but (because of the gun-phobia the government spreads) you all need to hear it again…
Guns (or knives) don’t kill, People Kill!
Note to Mayor Mike:
Here’s another way to bleed some more $$$ out of hard working New Yorkers – (just like you do with gun permits) start charging hundreds of dollars for kitchen knife permits!
B.T.W. Mike – A few months ago you said you were going to LOWER the gun permit fee to about 25 or 50 dollars. Did you forget about that?
Note to my fellow Yidden: Get a gun permit NOW, while you still can.
I agree 100%! His Royal Honor just told Albany last week that there is no need for private schooling for children with special needs. Yayasher Koach Mr. Mayor!
are you serious, wow, bloomberg is nuts. the best thing that would happen is if one of his children had a kid that was autistic and lets see what he says then. lets put all the special needs kids in public school and then when they turn 21 and they all decide to go on drugs or kill someone and the city has to pay for them either in jail or rehab than maybe the stupid mayor will see the light, i mean really how low can he get and where did he get his education from. i wish i can give him my special needs kids for 1 day and lets see how he handles them!!!!
3 & 4,
that is a gross distortion of what Mayor Bloomberg said to the state Legistlature in Albany. He specifically referred to “Special Education” students who forgo the Special Ed programs in the city school system without exploring them and go straight to Private Schools fully funded by taxpayer dollars. He wanted to potentially eliminate the jump so that the ones who would fair well with the city program weren’t milking the extraneous (tax dollar) monies spent.
If the author wants to see “out of control” violent crime, he should visit those states with lax gun laws, like Louisiana, Florida, and Texas.
That the author engages in namecalling shows that he has no real argument against the mayor, who simply wants to prevent bad guys from getting guns. Or does the author think that persons convicted of violent felonies should be able to walk into a gun show and buy a deadly weapon without a background check?
Oh and Mr. Spiegel, it wasnt NYPD detectives. they hired arizona based private investigators.
This article was written with out thought, by someone who is close minded. Mayor Mike, has been saying over and over, that guns from states like Arizona, Texas etc…. have been making their way to NYC and other large urban areas such as Newark. The sting operation was to send a wake up call to lawmakers, that many states have too lax gun laws, which in turn helps people like 16 year old Carvett Gentles who shot 14 year old Vada Vasquez in the head in a botched gang hit.
I get the idea, that Mayor Mike doesnt get everything 100%, but he is 100% right with gun control. People like Jared Lee Loughner who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, should not have been able to posses a gun. Have we forgotten about the day when another crazed individual Seung-Hui Cho murdered 32 people. Mayor Mike has been asking for stronger background checks. If a person is crazy, no body wants them to own a gun.
This has nothing to do with hypocrisy, it has to do with surviving 2012, and so on.
thecommissioner…
Don’t blame Arizona for this.
Blame the FBI and the U.S. Army.
This guy Loughner HAD the FBI quick check that everyone, anywhere in the U.S. must pass when purchasing any firearm.
Why don’t the databases of the Army and the FBI talk to each other?
He was rejected from the army (I think because he failed a drug test?). Why wasn’t the fact that he was rejected from the army not known in the FBI database when he had his quick check?
I’ve never heard anyone raise this question!
If the army had told the FBI this guy is a druggie (or whatever specifically was the reason he was rejected) the FBI would have flunked him on his check, and he couldn’t have purchased a gun!
Of course, like other violent criminals, if he couldn’t have bought a gun legally, he undoubtedly would have gotten one ILLEGALLY, which only proves the point that gun laws do NOT keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
AinOhdMilvado,
The problem is precisely that Loughner was able to legally buy a gun! He was too dangerous to be permitted to enroll in community college, but not too dangerous to buy a gun. That is the insane situation you gun nuts have created! As a result a federal judge, a nine year old girl, and four bystanders are dead, and a US Congresswoman is facing at best a very long rehab.
There were many common sense ways within the current law that Loughner could have been prevented from purchasing firearms. But then he would have just gone black market. The problem is that true gun crimes simply are not punished and enforced as they should be. Prosecutors make deals, judges make pleas, the feds never follow up, etc etc. If criminals don’t pay the real price for gun crimes, then what sense do new laws make? “Mayor Mike” (does anyone who doesn’t work for him call him that?!?!?!) doesn’t want to prevent crime, he wants to promote his liberal-elitist agenda that, fortunately, the constitution was designed to expressly defend against.
Daniel
Thank you for this op-ed piece. We need more members of the Jewish community, particularly Jewish media, to take a rational approach regarding firearms. Basically, firearms in hands of criminals and mentally unbalanced people — bad. Firearms in the hands of law abiding, responsible citizens — good. Jews, in particular, should care about Second Amendment rights and safe, responsible firearms ownership. Unfortunately, too many people like “Charliehall” who posted above simply resort to name calling (are all 90 million gun owners really nuts?) and leave logic behind.
The police, however well intentioned not matter how competent, are simply not our bodyguards. They can’t be. Their job is to enforce the law and investigate crime, not to keep us safe when we are faced with imminent deadly threats. Imagine you are in shul on Shabbos, and two men walk through the door armed with guns or even knives or axes. Go ahead an call the police. At best, it will take them 5 or 10 minutes to arrive. How many people will be dead and injured in the meantime? Think it can’t happen? Did you hear about the attack in Mumbai, where in a city with a handful of Jews out of a poulation of millions who was singled out? The Jews. Do you think that terrorists aren’t planning something like that here? It’s only a matter of time.
Background checks and mental health checks? I’m all for them. But in places like NY and NJ, the laws need to change so that a law abiding citizen can purchase a firearm without going through months of red tape and hassle, and then, with appropriate training, be licensed to carry a firearm for the purpose of self defense. That is in the interests of the entire Jewish community.